Tonight: ‘August: Osage County’ at WPPAC

I won’t be reviewing it for the paper—there’s a policy about the number of Equity actors in shows we review, etc.—but I’m looking forward to seeing what Jeremy Quinn at White Plains PAC does with Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County” tonight, in the final weekend of a two-weekend run. (Performances tonight and tomorrow at 8; Sunday at 2. www.wppac.com. $35; $25.)

It was three hours when I saw it, as it happens, on Opening Night on Broadway. But the pace of that phenomenal Steppenwolf company made it feel much shorter.

Pete has loved theater his whole life, ever since he played Santa Claus in third grade at Palisades Elementary School. A Rockland County native and an employee of The Journal News for more than two decades, Pete now alerts theater lovers to the possibilities and talks to artists young and old about their craft.

2 Comments

Bill Blanks

As a newspaper professional and theatre critic, surely you recognize the financial struggles that most area theatres are going through. Why on earth would you adopt a policy of only reviewing a production with a certain number of Equity actors? 99.99% of the general public have no idea what Actors’ Equity is, and, as a member myself, I can tell you that having that little piece of paper is ZERO guarantee of an actor’s talent nor is it a reflection of a production’s quality. Shouldn’t you be taking part in keeping the arts alive in our area, rather than holding fast to some ridiculous “policy?”

That has been our policy for years, Bill. And while I concur that an Equity card is no guarantee of quality, it is a benchmark. Should we review community theater, which can be excellent or wildly uneven? We tried that for a while, but found that the quality of some productions didn’t merit critical attention. We chose, rather, to review the pros—who had made acting their profession—and to write listings and advances on other community-theater shows. If you are a reader of this blog, or of the paper, you know that I have supported, and continue to support the arts, and local arts in particular. I do that by spotlighting local talent, telling people what is going on, helping build community around the arts. Whether a review supports the arts is a matter for discussion, a discussion I’m happy to have. I think your comment suggests that a review gives a show legitimacy. When I was acting, before fatherhood became my role, I was in shows that were reviewed and shows that were not. What a reviewer had to say did not change what was on the stage. It might have made us feel good and perhaps sold a few more tickets, but it didn’t sell the house out.